Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Virginia Polytechnic and State University, or Virginia Tech, is a leader in using technology to teach -- and have fun. The campus Math Emporium is a former department store that houses hundreds of computers programmed with math tutoring lessons that have boosted students' math success rates. Geography teacher John Boyer (who styles himself as "The Plaid Avenger") is regularly voted among the top instructors at the school and made a name for himself by getting world leaders to hold discussions with his classes via Skype. Such programs are one reason the school has an unusually high graduation rate among public schools: about 84%. Although Virginia Tech is known especially for engineering, its business, social sciences and agriculture programs are also strong. More than 1,000 students participate in the school's cadet program, which can lead to an officer commission in the military. Virginia Tech fields 19 Division I teams, all cheered on by a mascot called HokieBird, a kind of mythical, muscled-up turkey. In an example of nerdy fun, the school's robotics researchers created an award-winning robot that can dance Gangnam style. In a more recent (and serious) project, engineering students designed a human-size robot meant to support a variety of search and rescue tasks in disaster situations.